8/24/09: Segments 92 and 93 http://www.4thehealthofit.net/segment_htmls/Segment92.html http://www.4thehealthofit.net/segment_htmls/Segment93.html; Baie Verte, NFLD to Grand Falls-Windsor, NFLD. 72 miles.
Check out Barney’s blog on http://www.nwpassage2.blogspot.com/
The rain fell almost all night long from the hurricane. Then, round about 4 in the morning I woke up and noticed that the deluge had stopped. Could we be so lucky? I awoke to shards of sunlight streaming through the cracks in the window blinds, and I just couldn’t believe it. We had really dodged the bullet on this one, having been in just the right spot, between Nova Scotia and St. John’s, to not even blink an eye with the hurricane rain and winds. Rained over nigh, and then done. Very lucky indeed! I watched some tube, checking the weather channel for the gnarly details of the St. John’s hurricane landing, but it was actually not that big a deal. By the time it hit it was around 3am, and the storm had been downgraded by then. Nothing really bad to report there. It was still raining, but nothing crazy like what they’d gotten in Nova Scotia. Forecast for us – good weather for the next two days. YES. We have been SO lucky on this trip, dodging just about every weather bullet we could across this massive country. We’re either entering a province before or just after stretches of crap weather. Been that way the whole crossing. And so it continues.
So I met the crew in the motel restaurant, and had a great Grand Slam breakfast with a side of fish cakes. Those of you who’ve never had fish cakes, Ahhhhhhhhhh, you’ve got to try them. They’re usually made with cod or haddock, and mixed with potatos and herbs. Done right, and like pan fried, they’re heaven. And they were done right here for sure. This was the perfect place for yesterday’s endpoint what with a great little restaurant connected to the motel, out here like an island in the wilderness. The food here was very good and put me in just the right mode to crank out another day over hill and dale here on the QEW of NFLD. So we finished breakfast, got our gear loaded, Ryan changed his flat, and then Judy, me, Barney and Ryan took off together to do a moderate pace and stay together for a while. Bill, whose still suffering from Mr. Sinus infection, wanted to do support for one more day before he got back on the bike.
So out we went onto the QEW 1, with the sun shining, and a light tailwind blowing out of the northwest. The torrid humidity from the past week was totally wiped right off of the map with this hurricane, so the temps was in the comfort range today, in the 70’s, with very low humidity – so nice that I could wear my long sleeved jersey with total comfort. We kicked it off with a few long, gradual false flat climbs, taking over right from where we left off yesterday – carbon copy. No big climbs today, as everything was big ring and either ITS or OTS. We stayed together for about 2 hours and just jawed and enjoyed the wonderful scenery with sun and clouds. This was pretty much the story until Judy began to have a bit more effort to climb the steeper parts of the false flat climbs. And this is really more a function of her obsolete 26-inch mt bike than her fitness. We’re all using 29er’s or road bikes, so she’s at a disadvantage right from the gun. But still, we were able to average about 18 mph through 2 hours of riding with Judy doing playing gate-keeper in the back.
Barney eventually kind of stayed at his own pace and went up ahead for a bit, riding really strong, and climbing the steeper parts of the flase flats OTS with more and more confidence. Ryan and Judy and I hung for a bit until Judy was content with getting in her 2.5 hours of riding in, and then telling us to go ahead and finish up. So we TT’d back up to Barney and all finished the ride together into the city of Grand Falls-Windsor. We saw two signs that had a major impact on where we stopped. The first was a Mickey D’s sign – that signaling Barney that his chocolate milkshakes were just several miles away – and Subway – Ryan and I, and well, by now you know the story with Ryan and I and Subway. So off we went, jamming down the road looking for exit 18b, for our shake and sub fixes. Met Bill and Judy at exit 17 and gave them the proclamation for the Subway and Mickey D’s stop. Turns out that they are right next to one another, so that was the split, Barney to Mickey’s and us to Subways. I just got a 12-incher with 4 21-oz fountain drinks! Ryan two 12-inchers with one to eat later for dinner.
No comments:
Post a Comment